Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder pleaded not guilty Friday to misusing campaign funds and concealing debts from his ethics forms.
Householder, 64, of Glenford, appeared in a courtroom by Zoom from Elkton in Columbiana County, a low-security federal prison. His attorneys, Thomas Shaughnessy and Kevin Spellacy, appeared in person at the Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Cleveland.
This is his first court appearance since he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for his role in a sweeping pay-to-play scandal at the Ohio Statehouse.
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Householder was convicted last year of orchestrating a $60 million bribery scheme that helped him return to power, passing a bill that bailed out two nuclear plants in northern Ohio then owned by FirstEnergy and defending that law against a ballot initiative to block it.
Householder’s next court date is a pretrial hearing at 9 a.m. June 24 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Kevin Kelley’s courtroom.
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Householder now faces new felony charges in court accusing him of using more than $1 million in campaign cash to pay his defense attorneys in the federal bribery case and not disclosing payments and debts on required ethics forms.
He is charged with two counts of aggravated theft, one count of telecommunications fraud and five counts of tampering with records. Householder also is charged with theft in office, an offense that would bar him from holding public office again if convicted.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office brought in Carol O’Brien and Matthew Meyers from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office as special assistant prosecutors in the case.
Ohio Attorney General: Case to prevent a return to power
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said this charge is important to prevent Householder from returning to power for a third time. “State crimes have state penalties, and a conviction will ensure that there will be no more comebacks from the ‘Comeback Kid.’”
Prosecutors say Householder also failed to disclose important information on his annual ethics forms, including credit card debt, legal bills from a lawsuit over an Alabama coal plant and money paid to political consultant Jeff Longstreth for repairs on a Florida home where Householder’s mother once lived. During the federal trial, Longstreth testified that the arrangement was illegal.
Yost has also filed charges against two former FirstEnergy executives Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling in Summit County. They are accused of bribing ex-Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo with a $4.3 million payment so he would work on their behalf inside Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Randazzo, who was also accused of wrongdoing, died on April 16 by suicide.
Bryce Buyakie covers courts and public safety for the Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @bryce_buyakie.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
